Since the latest update in Ubuntu 10.10, the nm-applet has started doing some strange things. I boot up the PC, all is fine, internet works, etc... but after a period of time, approx and hour, the nm-applet menu in the Gnome panel fails to respond. when I click on the icon, the menu appears, all looks well, but when I select any option, eg DISCONNECT, nothing happens. Even the VPN sub menu disappears (no triangle to select the menu.) However I do not lose the network connection...

If I Run this script:

killall nm-applet

/etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart

nm-applet

all returns as normal, for a while... weird?

i tried uninstall/reinstall... I even reinstalled Ubuntu, but once the latest updates are applied this issues arises...

I am using: Ubuntu 10.10, Kernel 2.6.35-24-generic-pae, 4GB Ram DDR2, Intel Quad Core Processor. I am wondering if this strange error has anything to do with the quad core processor, I did have random errors using a quad core with Ubuntu on previous versions, but a dual core worked without a hitch... a bit random, but I'll try changing the processor later.. worth a shot...
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pst007xJan 28 '11 at 8:26

Same does happen on my other PC's and laptops too....
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pst007xJan 28 '11 at 14:28

2 Answers
2

Certain sources (notably Elementary Desktop's PPA) have a version of network-manager-gnome which is newer than the one in the canonical maverick repository. A fix has been issued for Natty, but is not in the Maverick repos yet. So Ubuntu sees the newer version in elementary-desktop, uses that instead of the canonical one and, hence, the bug.

The solution is to roll back the version of network-manager-gnome to the 0.8.1+git.20100809t190028.290dc70-0ubuntu3 from 0.8.2+git.20101123t161608.f143e76-0ubuntu1

This can be done from synaptic by searching for network-manager-gnome and then clicking 'force version' in the package menu and selecting the 0.8.1 version.

How do I downgrade this package? "Force version" is greyed out in Synaptic. When I try sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome=0.8.1+git.20100809t190028.290dc70-0ubuntu3, I get the error Version ‘0.8.1+git.20100809t190028.290dc70-0ubuntu3’ for ‘network-manager-gnome’ was not found. By the way I have version 0.8.4~git.20110318t152954.9c4c9a0-0ubuntu1
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Will SheppardMay 1 '12 at 10:51

I still have this problem in Precise. How can I check which, if any PPA's might be causing the problem now?
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Steve KroonDec 13 '12 at 8:06